Tag: Legal Action
Tax bill: Nokian Tyres wins appeal
A decision has been made on the 89.2 million euros that Nokian Tyres was ordered to pay in additional taxes and punitive tax increases for the 2007 to 2010 tax years. Finland’s Administrative Court has entirely overturned the tax reassessment decisions made by the country’s Board of Adjustment and has additionally ordered the Tax Administration to pay Nokian Tyres 40,000 euros in legal costs.
GDPR legislation takes effect this month
Are you ready? With the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) clock rapidly counting down to 25 May 2018 when the law comes into play, it businesses must ensure they are compliant. It is a detailed piece of legislation, so we can’t go into all the details here, but Ryan Naughton, operations director from CAM, and Stephen Ollernshaw, a director of Technology Law Alliance (creator of the online compliance tool Asimuth) recently provided Tyres & Accessories with their 10 key areas your business needs to know about GDPR.
Toyo wins latest round of Doublestar legal action
Toyo Tire and Rubber and Toyo Tire USA have prevailed in the liability phase of the company's trade dress infringement and breach of contract suit in Los Angeles Federal Court against Doublestar Dong Feng Tyre and Qingdao Doublestar Tire Industrial.
Deestone to keep its name despite Bridgestone brand dispute
On 3 April the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) said Thai tyre maker Deestone can retain its brand name despite opposition from Bridgestone, which owns both the Bridgestone and Firestone tyre brands.
USTMA urges NHTSA to remove UTQG, old tyre laws
The US Tire Manufacturers Association (USTMA) is urging the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to cut what it described as “outdated, unnecessary or ineffective” federal tyre regulations.
Toyo wins $1.6 million ruling against Doublestar
On 20 November 2017 the United States District Court for the Central District of California held Chinese tyre factories Doublestar Dong Feng Tyre Co., Ltd. (DDF) and Qingdao Doublestar Tire Industrial Co., Ltd. (QDT) in contempt for violating a 2014 Final Judgment prohibiting the manufacture and sale of tyres using a confusingly similar tread to that of Toyo’s best-selling Open Country M/T. DDF and QDT were held in contempt for selling the AMP M/T tyre, which was deemed to be too similar.
A third of VW ‘defeat devices’ remain unfixed
Mary Creagh MP, chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, has written to John Hayes MP, Minister of State at the Department for Transport, to express the Committee’s concerns around the lack of progress of applying fixes to cars equipped with ‘defeat devices’, with a third of cars remaining unfixed. Meanwhile, On 30 October 2017 Judge Charles Breyer of the US District Court for the Northern District of California upheld car dealers’ arguments that Bosch’s involvement with the VW defeat device emissions scandal violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, the same law used to bring charges for mafia-related crime and other organized racketeering.
Mechanics sentenced for issuing dodgy MOT certificates
Four mechanics have been given suspended sentences of up to 8 months and will have to pay nearly £20,000 in fines, after a Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) investigation found they were issuing fraudulent MOT certificates. Garage owner Mark Huckstepp, his son - also called Mark - and employees Anthony Hinds and Jagdeep Lotey all worked at Gallows Corner MOTs in Romford.
Vacu-Lug fined £300,000 in forklift death case
Lincolnshire-based Vacu-Lug Traction Tyres Limited was been fined £300,000 on 15 September after a worker died when the fork lift truck he was driving overturned at the company Grantham headquarters three years earlier. Lincoln Crown Court heard the worker was transporting tyres on 30 July 2014 when the fork lift ran over a loose tyre in the road. He was crushed between the fork lift truck and the ground and later died from his injuries. He was not wearing a seat belt.
Nokian Tyres charged 59 million euros extra tax in Finland
Nokian Tyres plc has received a tax reassessment decision from Finland’s Tax Administration, according to which the Company is obliged to pay 59 million euros additional taxes with punitive tax increases relating to the 2011 tax year. Payment must be made in November 2017. 39 million euros of the figure relates to additional taxes and 20 million euros relates to punitive tax increases and interests.
Ultra-Seal wins case against German tyre association BRV
Bonn District Court and the higher Federal court of appeal in Cologne have rejected the application for a preliminary injunction against Ultra-Seal regarding the use of Ultra-Seal on the German market sought by the German tyre association BundesReifenVerband (BRV). According to the company, over the last few months, a large lobby had been set up by the BRV, which had been “proactively attacking Ultra-Seal users and the press with statements about Ultra-Seal being illegal on the German market on grounds of §36 of the StVZO (German Road Vehicle Registration Regulations) under ‘Richtlinien’ (guidelines) issued by the Bundesverkehrsministerium (Federal Transport Department)”. Ultra-Seal stated its counterarguments against these allegations in statement published by Tyres & Accessories’ German sister website, Reifenpresse on 23 May 2017.
10 Black Donuts defendants convicted for violating Nokian’s business secrets
The Finnish District Court of Pirkanmaa has sentenced 10 former Nokian Tyres employees who transferred to the Black Donuts Engineering group of companies for “the violation and abuse of Nokian Tyres’ business secrets”. According to Nokian, the District Court convicted all the defendants. Eight defendants were sentenced to conditional imprisonment of 6–18 months and two received fines. The managing director and two other executives from Black Donuts Engineering Oy were sentenced to business prohibitions of 3–5 years in addition to imprisonment.
Safe-Run hails ‘significant progress’ in VMI dispute
Safe-Run has announced that it has made “significant progress” in the patent invalidation and patent litigation process against VMI Holland B.V. Safe-Run explained that the Patent Reexamination Board of State Intellectual Property Office declared that the VMI’s invention patent “Assembly for and Method of Making a Tyre Component” is “entirely invalid”. According to the company, the patent declared invalid is deemed to have “not existed from the very beginning”. In addition, the court has dismissed VMI's litigation action against Safe-Run for this patent infringement. For its part, VMI stated that it made progress in the same series of cases and that it would appeal a number of adverse verdicts.
Bridgestone wins further Chinese patent infringement case
Bridgestone has won a patent case against Guangzhou-based Wanli Tire. Bridgestone's success follows another victory last September's this time against Triangle Tyre. According to Nikkier, Bridgestone said the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court in April reached a favourable ruling regarding a patent infringement lawsuit Bridgestone filed in October 2015. The suit alleged Wanli of manufacturing and selling tyres with tread patterns used in Bridgestone's Dueler A/T Revo 2 tyres for sports utility vehicles.
High court to hear VW emissions group litigation request
Harcus Sinclair UK Limited, a UK law firm specialising in large group litigation, has applied for a group litigation order in claims against VW, Audi, SEAT and Skoda arising out of the Volkswagen emissions scandal, which has affected 1.2 million cars in the UK alone. This is the first group litigation order sought in relation to the VW emissions scandal on behalf of UK consumers. A group litigation order is the Court’s mechanism for handling claims involving a large number of claimants who share the same complaint. The application for the group litigation order will be heard in the High Court on 30 January 2017. Media is permitted to attend.